A man from Huddersfield has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years for the brutal murder of a teenage Syrian refugee who had recently arrived in the United Kingdom.
Leeds Crown Court heard that 20-year-old Alfie Franco fatally stabbed 16-year-old Ahmad Al Ibrahim in Huddersfield town centre after the boy accidentally brushed past Franco’s girlfriend in April. Franco was found guilty of murder on Thursday following a three-hour jury deliberation.
Ahmad, who had fled the Syrian city of Homs after being injured in a bombing, had been living in West Yorkshire for only a few weeks before the attack. On the day of the killing, Franco had attended a jobcentre appointment and was later out shopping for eyelash glue with his girlfriend.
The court was told that Franco, who had consumed a cocktail of cannabis, cocaine, diazepam, ketamine and codeine, took offence after Ahmad walked past his girlfriend. CCTV footage captured Franco calling Ahmad over following a brief verbal exchange. As the teenager approached, Franco drew a flick knife concealed in his trousers and stabbed him in the neck.
Franco denied murder but admitted possessing a knife in public. Sentencing him on Friday, Judge Howard Crowson said Franco had “identified him as a target and lured him to within your range to strike before killing him,” dismissing the defendant’s claim that he thought Ahmad had a weapon as “a lie.”
The judge commended medical staff who tried to save Ahmad’s life, saying that it was “a testament to their efforts and his will to live that he even made it to the hospital alive, but in truth his wounds were unsurvivable.”
In a heartbreaking victim statement read in court by Richard Wright KC, Ahmad’s uncle Ghazwan Al Ibrahim, speaking on behalf of the family, said that Ahmad’s father suffered a heart attack upon learning of his son’s death and required surgery.
“I am unable to describe the impact of their heinous crime and the effect it has had on everyone,” the statement read. “His mother still cries over his clothes as they smell of him.”
Ghazwan, who said Ahmad was like a son to him, added that the teenager had believed he had found “the land of peace and the fulfilment of dreams” in Britain, only to be “cruelly taken away by the senseless and unprovoked act.”
In a statement following the sentencing, he said: “Ahmad, we love you, we miss you and we will do forever.”
The court heard that Ahmad had travelled for three months to reach the UK, spending time at a refugee centre for teenagers in Swansea before moving to Huddersfield. He had enrolled in college and dreamed of becoming a doctor to care for his mother, who suffers from a chronic illness.
Franco will serve at least 23 years before being eligible for parole.